Battle Royale
by Larmyx
Summary: Sakura vs Karin! The ultimate battle of the Sasuke fangirls! Sakura thinks that she left her love for Sasuke behind a long time ago, but has she? And if she has, then why does Karin make her feel so envious?
1. Chapter 1

Flicker the squirrel sat on a tree branch, his tiny mind contemplating a serious matter.

Get the nut? Or stay in the nice, safe tree?

The object of the debate lay on the forest floor, looking very tempting and delicious. It was a very good-looking nut.

Get the nut? Or don't get the nut?

What Flicker didn't know was that the debate of the nut was trivial compared to the danger of a large, pink-haired fury headed his way.

Luckily for Flicker, he was feeling kind of risky that day. He scrambled down the tree to retrieve his prize. He settled for a moment on the forest floor to admire his nut before turning to scurry back up into his home up in the tree.

CCCRACK! With a loud crack, the tree snapped in half, its tall, straight trunk, with Flicker's home inside, falling to the ground right where Flicker was sitting. His tiny black eyes stared at his impending doom, one thought now in his mind.

The nut no longer seemed worth it.

BAM! The tree crashed to the ground with a deafening boom. Sakura kept moving, leaping from branch to branch, occasionally punching innocent trees in blind rage.

In short, Sakura was pissed off.

Now, Sakura had a short fuse and little patience for fools. That combined with her partnership to Naruto and Sai lead to daily explosions of anger on her part. But this time was entirely another matter. To make an analogy, her frequent fits were like little plastic water guns to the AK-47 of this state of fury. Her vision was tinted red and her whole body was numb with anger and frustration and pain and_ confusion_.

Only one person could make her feel like this. Sasuke.

Sakura had long gotten over her childish crush and worship of her peer. Those feelings had long since been replaced by feelings of admiration and respect as a ninja and a friend. Yes, his betrayal had hurt and, yes, it still hurt, but Sakura had never quite hated him for it, though she probably should have. She always believed, deep in her heart, that together she and Naruto could bring him back. Today she felt differently.

The day had begun badly enough. Sakura had a long shift at the hospital, caring for suffering patients, many of them dying. The small bits and pieces she'd heard spoke of the terror the Akatsuki was causing and their alliance to a new group called Hawk. A group headed by none other than the infamous Benedict Arnold, Sasuke Uchiha. Every time she heard the name Hawk or the name of its leader, Sakura's fists clenched just a little tighter and her eyes narrowed just a little bit more.

The messenger carrying news of a new Sasuke sighting had especially unfortunate timing to relay the message to Tsunade while Sakura was present. This was the last straw for Sakura. She whirled out of that office so quickly she hardly had time to see the terrified look on the messenger's face. Sakura got to the nearest window in the hospital and hurled herself out into the forest to begin her infuriated rampage on the forest and, ultimately, poor Flicker's home.

After leaving a long wake of felled trees behind her, Sakura was beginning to feel a little calmer. She stopped on a tall pine just outside a small clearing in the forest. She leaned against the trunk and slowed her breathing. In, out, in, out.

After about five minutes of just resting, a flash of color across the clearing caught Sakura's eye. She turned to face the disturbance and red eyes caught her green. The curious eyes belonged a female ninja, standing, hands on hips, directly across from Sakura. The eyes glared from behind a pair of wire frames perched on the girl's nose. Her hair was just as flaming red as her eyes, long and smooth on one side, but tussled and unkempt on the other.

"Who the hell are you?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Who the hell are you?"

Taken aback by the bluntness of the question, Sakura blinked, unsure of what to say. Then she came to her senses and narrowed her eyes at the rude girl. "I could ask you the same question," she retorted. Sakura stood up and stared her down. She didn't know who the hell this girl thought she was, but Sakura was pretty sure she didn't like her attitude. Judging from the girl's glare, Sakura was certain the feeling was mutual. Sakura, feeling apprehensive underneath her defiant pose, shook her short pink hair out and crossed her arms.

The girl smirked. "Oh, I know who you are now. You're Sakura Haruno, aren't you? Sasuke's old...teammate," she sneered at the word _teammate_.

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise. She knew who this girl was! Karin was an active member of Hawk, a subordinate of Sasuke's. Her bipolar hair, her red eyes, her attitude, even the way she lingered on Sasuke's name, gave her away. Sakura's green eyes narrowed even further. Now she was positive she didn't like this girl. And instead of feeling apprehensive and calculating the way she always felt before a fight, Sakura felt strangely happy and pissed off at the same time. This was the _perfect_ person to take her anger out on.

"Then I would be right to assume that you're Karin? A member of..._Hawk_," Sakura spat out the word like it was poison. Karin only grinned wider.

"Guilty as charged, bitch. What? Are you jealous that I've taken your place in Sasuke's heart? You are. I can see it on your face. Still hoping that Sasuke thinks of you sometimes?" her voice took on a mocking, high-pitched tone, "That he wishes he never left your little village and all your little friends?" The mocking tone disappeared and Karin's voice hardened, "Well, you're wrong. Sasuke has never looked back since that day and he never will. Sasuke's too much of a _man _to have such stupid regrets. Even if you did cry like the weak little girl that you are."

Sakura's fists were clenched so tight that her nails were drawing blood from her palms. Her jaws were locked together in a frozen grimace. With every word that Karin spoke, her vision got just a little more red with rage.

Karin didn't stop there. "Did you cry for him, you stupid slut? Did you cry for your lost, lonely friend? He always hated you. He said you were irritating and weak. No wonder he left."

_Snap._ There it was. The little barrier in Sakura's mind that kept her sane shattered. Screaming wordlessly, she launched herself against the clearing at Karin. Karin just barely had time to dodge Sakura's punch. It landed on a tree instead, splitting it clean in the middle from top to bottom. Karin, a little breathless from the last minute dodge, still kept her arrogant demeanor.

"Didn't make you angry, did I? Well--Ugh!" Karin's sentence was cut short as Sakura drove a fist into her stomach. She flew backwards, bones cracking as she collided into a tree with a boom.

"Ah!" Karin stood slowly, spitting out blood. She was no longer smirking.

"You wanna play with me, bitch? Very well, we'll play." Karin threw herself at Sakura in a flurry of spinning kicks and punches. Sakura switched to defensive mode, whirling to block the attacks. She finally landed a series of hits, smacking back Sakura's head and sweeping her legs out from underneath her. Sakura hit the ground hard, bruising the entire left side of her face.

"Ugh!" she grunted, the wind knocked out of her. Karin delivered a swift kick to Sakura's solar plexus, than leapt out of the way as Sakura's hand snaked out to catch her around the ankle. Sakura got back up and then hurled herself across the clearing once more at her enemy. She no longer thought of mapping out strategies or planning her next attack. Her mind was consumed with rage. She only cared about the brute force that she threw at her adversary, how much pain she was causing her. Sakura wanted her to suffer like she had suffered. She growled with pleasure at the thought of Karin suffering.

Underneath her bitter anger, Karin was surprised at herself. Normally, she did not act so undisciplined. She worked hard to keep her emotions under control and prized herself on having such a tight control over her emotions. It was necessary, in order to keep up with the rest of the members of the Hawk. This case was different, though. This was about Sasuke. Boy, did he make her hot. He was so calm and controlled. He was also so handsome that it made Karin want to jump all over him and eat him right up. The way Karin saw it, Sakura was bitter about losing her opportunity with Sasuke and now she was trying to move in on what was now Karin's territory. Why couldn't she and that doofus Jinchuuriki just leave Sasuke alone? Couldn't they see he had moved on? That he was better off without them? Sasuke didn't need them anymore. Karin scoffed at the thought. The only person Sasuke needed was Karin.

And technically...you know...the other two....

Karin didn't have any more time to dwell on Sasuke as Sakura drew several shruiken from her pouch and launched them at Karin. Karin dived out of the way, one shruiken slicing the back of her leg. Not even sparing a second to glnce at her injury, Karin whipped out a kunai and launched at Sakura, who ducked just in time. It hit the tree behind her instead and promptly blew up. Sakura just barely got out of the way in time, though several splinters from the explosion peppered her back. Grimacing at the sharp pain, she drew a kunai just as Karin did and leapt at her, locking their weapons together.

"I hate you," she gasped before withdrawing again.

Karin backed into a tree and wheezed, "The feeling's mutual, you shrew."

And again, they went at it.

Somewhere further away in the forest, beside a felled tree, Flicker sat, frozen and wide-eyed, clutching his nut. The tree that had come so dangerously close to crushing him before had fallen just to the right of Flicker, making him the luckiest squirrel in the whole forest. He looked down at the nut in his hand and suddenly the thoughts of impending doom vanished. He got the nut! The delicious, unreachable treasure was finally his! He couldn't wait to climb back up into his home and store it away for later!

Flicker started to prance back up to the tree and then stopped. Flicker looked at the tree on the ground, somewhere it was not meant to be. His little hovel had been inconveniently relocated to the forest floor underneath the crushing weight of the tree. He gasped and then scrambled to find his little hole. He found it alright. All the nuts he had carefully collected and stored for all those months had fallen out of the tree and had been pulverized by the tree's weight. What Flicker was looking at now was nut dust.

It is an odd thing, to see a squirrel cry.


	3. Chapter 3

While Sakura and Karin were battling it out in the forest, Naruto and Sai, Sakura's teammates, were sitting at the counter of the IchiRaki ramen stand, contentedly munching on ramen.

Naruto finished gobbling up his lunch and sighed happily. "Aaah!" He glanced over at Sai who was methodically picking at his ramen. "Doesn't get any better than this, does it Sai?"

Sai's expression was blank. "If you say so."

"I do!" Naruto exclaimed. He leaned along the counter and, using his chopsticks, pointed at Sai's half-empty bowl. "That right there, my friend, is the secret to true happiness," he whispered conspiratorially.

Sai raised an eyebrow at his teammate. "Sure."

Naruto shook his head and sighed, "Sasuke didn't believe me either. but, whatever, you guys are missing out." He perked up. "Hey, are you going to finish that?"

It was Sai's turn to sigh as he pushed his bowl over to Naruto who immediately dug in with gusto.

Sasuke was brooding.

This was hardly usual. Even as a kid, Sasuke was prone to going off into a corner and thinking dark thoughts. Naruto called it sulking. Sakura preferred to think of it as some sort of meditation. His fellow Hawk members saw it as planning, plotting if you will, like he was some sort of tactical genius. Whatever. People could call it what they wanted. Sasuke didn't care.

This time Sasuke was dwelling on something he cared not to think about. The past. His (former) friends. This was unusual. When Sasuke made the choice to leave Konoha behind, he vowed to urge himself of such nonsense and to only focus on what lay ahead. In short, nostalgia was not his thing.

But this time he couldn't seem to help it. Perhaps it was because he was so close to his old home, sitting in a clearing, a couple short miles from Konoha itself. Being so close made Sasuke uneasy, though he'd never admit it to his teammates. Good thing they were gone. Suigetsu and Jugo were off, tying up some loose ends for him, and Karin was out scouting. So Sasuke allowed his unease to show, just a little bit. He wondered what would've happened if he had stayed. Would things be better?

Sasuke shook his head in frustration with himself. How could things be better? He had all that he wanted. Itachi was dead. He was in possession of great power and assurance that he, not his brother, was the strongest of the Uchiha clan. He even had fr- comrades. Not friends, comrades. Who needed friends? They are the chains that pull you back from achieving true power.

Frustration boiled inside of him. Frustration at his inability to resolve such useless internal conflicts. He got up from his seat. He was going. Where he didn't know. Just somewhere.

And with that he took off into the forest.

"Ugh!" Sakura grunted as Karin landed a hard blow on her solar plexus. The wind knocked out of her, she collapsed on the ground. Karin gritted her teeth in a wolf-like smile and kicked her again.

"See? You're weak!" Kick. "Too weak to even stand up against me!" Kick "It's a good thing Sasuke isn't even here to see you like this!" Kick "He'd be DISGUSTED!" Kick "You." Kick "Are." Kick "SO." Kick "Pathet-AH!" On the last kick, Sakura's hand lashed out and pulled Karin's foot out from underneath her. Karin fell to the ground hard, her glasses flying off her face. In one fluid motion, Sakura leaped up and revealed a small kunai concealed in her other hand. She slashed out at Karin's face. A long, thin slice appeared along the entire length of her jawline, deep red against her now pale skin. Karin lashed wildly out at Sakura, who leaped out of the way just in time. Karin touched her fingers to the slash. They came away bloody. She was surely going to scar.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"


End file.
